When it comes to securities holdings, often times showing a loss isnt a bad thing. This happens when there are benefits to recognizing losses on securities, such as deferring capital gains (and their associated taxes) to a later time. This is where tax lot accounting software becomes a crucial weapon that every broker should have at their disposal.

This piece of software automatically tracks important information for each piece of security that is a part of a brokers portfolio, including dates of purchase and sale, cost basis reporting and transaction size. By doing so, brokers can more easily identify ways to minimize the current value of investment by minimizing the capital gains released, making it easier to lessen the one-time tax burden placed by a range of investments.